And the other important questions, still so relevant today: What will you do when the label comes off and the plastic's all melted and the chrome is too soft? and What will you do if the people you knew were the plastic that melted and the chromium too?

27 comments:

I bought "Freak Out" when I was 14 (it had been out for a while by then). I brought it over to my friend's house a few days after he had been picked up by the police for some minor infraction. I played "Who are the Brain Police", & as the Zappa sang the line

What will you do if we let you go home..

my friend said "Huh! That's what the cops asked me the other day down at the station.".

1966 was also the release year for the Fugs' first two albums. The two groups were often lumped together for the edginess of their songs. Certainly not as musically gifted as Zappa & The Mothers, the Fugs were much grittier--NYC Lower East Side vs. San Diego.

The answer depended on the acid. The answer on a tab of orange sunshine was different from the answer on tab strawberry fields. Chromium meled at diffent rates between the two and the plastic... Never mind. I guess you had to have been there. It was a different space time continuum.

We prefered Blonde on Blonde. We made our own joke about Lebanese blonde hashish and the little brass - blonde water pipes we used to spark it up with. It was more...organic.

"I know LP sides were shorter in 1966 than even a few years later, but 12 minutes! Verve (then primarily a jazz label) took all us little weirdoes to the cleaner on this one!"

The technology of vinyls lps limits the maximum length each side can be. I think that limit is effectively about 20 minutes, but 15 or 16 minutes per side was usually the average. Some artists wanted the records to be "hot," that is, the wanted the music to be particularly loud and resonant, and this required that the grooves be wider, thereby shortening even more the length each side could be.

Also, pop artists then were expected to produce two (or maybe even three) albums a years...jazz musicians produced even more than that. How much music can touring (or even non-touring) artists be expected to write in any given year...(and be good)?

I sort of liked parts of Zappa's ABSOLUTELY FREE and I adore ALL of WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH. Aside from that, Zappa's music--and his alleged satirical humor--is complete anathema to me.

The technology of vinyls lps limits the maximum length each side can be. I think that limit is effectively about 20 minutes, but 15 or 16 minutes per side was usually the average

No, RC, it was the record companies bleeping us over. I have in my hands one of the first classical recordings I ever bought, within a year or two of my purchase of "Freak Out". It's a Seraphim/Angel recording of Andre Cluytens/Berlin Philharmonic doing Beethoven's 9th (Cluytens died in 1968). Side 1 --- 36:06! Side 2 --- 34:40 Those grooves are packed so tight in the pressing!

There's no difference between recording the Mothers & the Berlin Philharmonic as to how much sound could be crammed on a side. Classical recordings demanded it, & popular didn't, so the record companies gave away as little as they had to us buyers.

Frank Zappa was responsible for me getting into Edgar Varese, too. Zappa really loved Varese's music & talked it up repeatedly in interviews, which was more than enough for little geeko me to check it out.

Integrales has been my favorite since high school. I do not, however, recommend it as date music.

My hippie uncle Leif had that album and played it for us. My favorite song was "Wowie Zowie" and the lines about "I don't even care if you shave your legs" "... brush your teeth" Etc. Amazing what will amuse a six-year-old.

Ann- I too have a soft spot for "Fillmore East" , as well as "Just Another Band from LA". I always thought Frank should have had someone next to him saying "that's a good Idea, that's a bad idea..." He was a very good guitar player. I love the guitar work on "Roxy and Elsewhere" Eddie are you kidding?

Was a freshman at Case Tech when Raymond Wilding-White, holder of the Kulas Chair, produced a concert of electronic music. After we took our seats, he stepped up to the (empty) stage and pressed a button on a tape recorder. One of the 'selections' was 'Who are the Brain Police'. Loved it at the same time as it blew my mind. (Donald Erb also involved with W-W in some 'happenings' which were quite fun. Cleveland a great city...may it survive the summer.)